July 24 – August 30

The Whitsun Festival, part of Herbert von Karajan’s legacy, is rededicated as a festival of baroque music with a great city-wide celebration, the performance of Cavalli’s opera La Calisto and seven concerts dedicated exclusively to the pre-classical repertoire. Ivan Nagel’s reign over the drama department turns out to have been an intermezzo; suffering from morbus salisburgensis – thus his own diagnose – he resigns after only one season. However, this interregnum is not without consequences: the project Poets in Residence, with Elfriede Jelinek as its first protagonist, is due to Nagel’s initiative. Jelinek’s play er nicht als er, based on Robert Walser, is given its world premiere by the ingenious Jossi Wieler; Robert Wilson’s production of Danton’s Death is equally noteworthy. Six new productions plus Jedermann are on the playbill – without question, a record; on the other hand, all these plays are coproductions, a development that threatens Salzburg’s exclusivity. For the first time since the beginning of the era Mortier, there are more revivals than new productions on the opera program. However, Zadek’s Mahagonny and Marthaler’s Katja Kabanova are resoundingly successful. Siemens joins Nestlé and Audi as the new main sponsor. Betty Freeman agrees to support opera world premieres during the coming years with $300,000.

1998: Herbert Wernicke rehearsing Verdi's Don Carlo.

Coproduction with the Berliner Ensemble
Georg Büchner
Dantons Tod
Stage director and sets: Robert Wilson
Costumes: Frida Parmeggiani
Landestheater

World premiere
Hal Hartley
Soon
Stage director: Hal Hartley
Sets and costumes: Steve Rosenzweig
Perner-Insel Hallein

Coproduction with the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg
Elfriede Jelinek
er nicht als er (zu, mit Robert Walser)
Stage director: Jossi Wieler
Stage sets: Anna Viebrock
Costumes: Anja Rabes
Elisabethbühne

Coproduction with the Theater Basel
William Shakespeare
Troilus and Cressida
Stage director: Stefan Bachmann
Stage sets: Ricarda Beilharz
Costumes: Annabelle Witt
Stadtkino

Coproduction with Ex Machina, Quebec
Robert Lepage
Geometry of Miracles
Stage director: Robert Lepage
Stage sets: Carl Fillion
Costumes: Marie-Chantale Vaillancourt
Perner-Insel Hallein

Production of the Berliner Ensemble
Else Lasker-Schüler
Die Reise nach Jerusalem
Stage director: Brigitte Landes
Sets and costumes: Wigand Witting
With Angela Winkler
Landestheater

Dichterin zu Gast
Elfriede Jelinek

New production
Kurt Weill
Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny
Conductor: Dennis Russell Davies
Stage director: Peter Zadek
Stage sets: Richard Peduzzi
Costumes: Norma Moriceau
Großes Festspielhaus

Coproduction with the Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse
Leoš Janáček
Katja Kabanowa
Conductor: Sylvain Cambreling
Stage director: Christoph Marthaler
Sets and Costumes: Anna Viebrock
Kleines Festspielhaus

New production
Giuseppe Verdi
Don Carlo
Conductor: Lorin Maazel
Stage director, sets and costumes: Herbert Wernicke
Großes Festspielhaus

Revivals: Jedermann,Fidelio, Saint François d’Assise, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Le nozze di Figaro

Concert performances: Szymanowski's King Roger, Wagner's Parsifal

Concert cycles: Next Generation (Olga Neuwirth), Go For Kurt Weill, Wiener Philharmoniker, Choir and Orchestral Concerts, Contemporary Beethoven, Stravinsky & Mozart, Schumann the Poet, Chamber Concert, Solo Recitals, Lied Recitals, Matinees, Church Concert

Opening speach by Kardinal Franz König: "Europa braucht ein neues geistiges Antlitz"

Details of the several years:

1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001,